How to install a new launcher on Amazon’s Fire tablet

I’ve enjoyed using my Fire HD 8 tablet as my “main” Android tablet these last few months, but I finally got fed up with some of the annoyances of the built-in Fire launcher. There weren’t any huge annoyances, which is why it took so long to get fed up, but finally I got tired of the lack of an app drawer where I could access an app right away if I couldn’t remember what folder I’d put it in. I also missed having access to launcher widgets, and the ease of swiping left to get to the Google Assistant.

The problem is, Amazon doesn’t provide any easy way to change launchers. Some launchers will let you run them manually—but my favorite launcher, the Google Now launcher, won’t. It helpfully told me I needed to change the launcher setting in my settings menu, but that’s a setting that the Fire’s settings menu doesn’t have.

Fortunately, as with many Fire annoyances, clever Android hackers out there have come up with a way around it, and you don’t even need to root your tablet to make it work. Here’s how you do it.

Install the launcher you want to use, and make sure it will run on your Fire at all. (Or, in the case of Google Now, that it will tell you to change your launcher setting.)

Install the latest version of LauncherHijack. You can download it here. Just use your Fire to browse to that link and tap on the file that ends with “APK.”

Go into your Fire’s Settings -> Accessibility menu, scroll down to the very bottom, and make sure that “To detect home button press” is set to “on.” (This option won’t appear until you’ve installed LauncherHijack, so do that first.) It may warn you that this type of option can allow someone to steal anything you type in, such as credit card numbers—that’s a standard warning for any plug-in that can intercept device input, such as a custom keyboard, so don’t pay it too much mind.

Run LauncherHijack, and tap on the launcher you want to use. If the launcher doesn’t appear on the list, you may need to restart the tablet and try again. On some tablets, I’ve had to restart a couple of times before it started working.

If you want to change launchers back, run LauncherHijack and tap the triple-dot “options” icon at the top right. Uncheck the box to hide system files and the Fire’s default launcher, “Home,” should appear in the list.

Changing the launcher brings the Fire up to about 90% as useful as a “real” Android tablet. There are still a few little differences in the way the Fire does things—the settings menus and link-sharing dialogue are still FireOS’s, among other things—but if you’ve been frustrated that you couldn’t get the launcher to act like you wanted it to, this should allow you to change that.

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Published by Chris Meadows

TeleRead Editor and Senior Writer Chris Meadows has been writing for TeleRead--except for a brief interruption--since 2006. Son of two librarians, he has worked on a third-party help line for Best Buy and holds degrees in computer science and communications. He clearly personifies TeleRead's motto: "For geeks who love books--and book-lovers who love gadgets." Chris lives in Indianapolis and is active in the gamer community.
View all posts by Chris Meadows

Have you noticed any impact on battery life? I put the Play Store and Google Now launcher on my 5th gen 7 and killed my battery life. Having not learned my lesson, I’m considering trying again on my new HD 8.

Nice idea which doesn’t work – in boot you get the new launcher but each subsequent press gets you back to the fire launcher. Amazon seems very insistent to prevent their abysmal piece of garbage from being useful.

Mine didn’t work
When i went to launcherhijack v3 and found out that google now launcher didn’t appear…..How to enable Google now launcher on the Fire HD 8 2017….fix launcher disappearing launcherhijack…..

This works with the Fire HD 8 (8th Generation) on version 6.3.0.1, but you have to go into Settings>Apps>Manage All>LauncherHijack and tick “Display Over Other Apps” on, that will prevent the app from appearing to close as you try to open it and let you select the Google Now launcher. On reboot it worked like a charm.

ran into some issues which I resolved:
1. GSF ID field was empty: you need to run Google play and login with your account before a GSF ID is assigned to the device, do so and launch app again.

2a. LauncherHijack app accessibility setting was empty (I could not switch “detect home button press” to “on”. You need to make sure the device has the latest OS version (Settings>Device Options>System Updates>Check now)

2b. version 3 of the LauncherHijack app is known to cause some issues on HD8, if 3 or 4 don’t work, uninstall (long-press on icon and tap uninstall in search bar up top) and download and install version 2.1

Actually, you just need to run Google Play, you don’t have to get to the login point. When I ran Google Play, it just said “checking info” and then didn’t open a new screen—but when I went back to the ID app again, the formerly blank area had a text string. I registered it, and this time the Play Store opened.